Monday, December 08, 2008

"A proposed labor contract with Tacoma’s rank-and-file police officers calls for a 6.2 percent wage hike next year, and sets the stage for a move to 12-hour shift schedules in 2010.

Pay is up from the 3.3 percent raise officers received this year as part of the final year of a contract that was settled by an independent arbitrator, and higher than the two previous years wage hikes of 4.6 percent and 2.3 percent.

City officials said there wasn’t much to negotiate with regard to the overall wage increases. The arbitrator who decided the terms of the current labor agreement obligated Tacoma to maintain the department’s position as the highest-paid among a group of six comparable Washington cities.".